Portable selective call receivers (SCR's) such as pagers typically employ a battery for supplying necessary circuit power. The energy capacity of the battery is conserved by periodically turning off power to certain portions of the SCR circuitry. Specifically, the receiver portion of a pager is usually turned off during times when it is known that a message will not be sent.
In a known paging signalling format, data, transmitted to the pagers in a system, includes a series of frames (the total number of frames being fixed). The battery is conserved by assigning each pager to a specific frame in the series. In this scheme, a pager's receiver can be left "off" for all frames except the pager's assigned frame. However, for pager users that require immediate receipt of sent messages (quick-response users), this method may result in an unacceptable delay. In order to accommodate the quick-response users, there is typically a provision for certain ones of the pagers in use in the system to have the capability to receive messages in any frame. However, this reduces the life of the battery.
Thus, what is needed is a method in a selective call system for allowing quick-response users to receive messages in any frame while still conserving the energy capacity of the battery.